Month: February 2024

From MockPaperScissors:

This isn't snarky, really, but Politico is giving us some background on what happens if once-elected (sorta?), twice impeached, quintuply-indicted, 91-ily charged LOSER ex-prznit Stupid doesn't pay his judgements:

Even for a man who claims to be a billionaire, $440 million is a potentially crippling amount of cash to turn over. Can Trump afford the judgments? When does he have to pay them? And what happens if he says he can't — or if he outright refuses?

[…]In the civil fraud case, which is in New York state court, if Trump can't post the funds or get a bond, then the judgment would take effect immediately and a sheriff could begin seizing Trump's assets. […]

Can Trump delay payment by appealing the verdicts?

No. In all three cases, he has to put money in an escrow account with the court or get a bond while he's appealing the verdicts. […]

Does he personally have to pay the verdicts? Could he get his campaign or PAC or the RNC to pay?

The courts don't have restrictions on the sources of funds used to pay judgments, and Trump would surely like to tap other funds than whatever money is in his own personal accounts.

[…]Using his political vehicles to pay would be far trickier. There is a general ban on using campaign donations for personal uses unrelated to a campaign or the official duties of an officeholder. And as for his political action committees, Richard Pildes, a professor of constitutional law at New York University law school, said they can't pay Trump's judgments.

"Campaign funds cannot be used for that purpose regardless of whether the PAC is the decision-maker," he wrote in an email.

And this is my favorite answer to the question of the RNC paying his fines:

The Republican National Committee doesn't have the same ban on the personal use of funds as Trump's campaign committee, but paying Trump's judgments could jeopardize its nonprofit status.

So he has the potential of financially destroying the RNC. ETTD, to Infinity and Beyond!